The Death of Hermione Granger
by khaleesiweasley
Summary: AU. What if Hermione had died during the of Hogwarts? How will Ron carry on without his loved one? WILL he carry on without his loved one?
1. The Sacrifice

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters.**

"NOOOOOOOO!"

From the moment Ron heard that anguish-filled scream, the next events that took place happened in slow motion.

He felt the shove, a shove that only a female could have produced, but with enough force to make him fall to the ground, his feet already unstable on a mount of hidden objects.

He had heard the curse, but had not turned around in time to know that the Killing Curse was directed towards him, and how, very slowly, in his mind, the beautiful girl gave a scream then ran towards him, pushing him out of the way, then sinking towards the floor.

Ron was confused. He made his way towards the limp body, and saw bushy brown hair, and a face wearing a beautiful smile, as if she was satisfied with something that had just happened.

He reached out a hand to touch her. Her cheek was still warm, although it was getting colder and colder with every second. Then, he knew.

He knew that the girl he loved had just saved him from death. He knew that she had sacrificed herself in order to save her life. He knew that Hermione Granger, the person who he knew he absolutely couldn't live without, was dead.

He tried shaking her shoulders, knowing in his heart that it would be useless. He stared at her, and didn't know that tears were falling from his eyes until he saw a tear dripping onto Hermione's beautiful face.

He couldn't believe she was gone, that he would never be able to hear that beautiful laugh or see that shinning smile, or see the sparkle in her eyes when she accomplished something new in class. He would never be able to argue with her about cats and rats, about famous Quidditch players, about anything that could be argued about. He would never be able to ask for her forgiveness everytime he had upset her. But most of all, he couldn't believe that he didn't get to start the life that he always imagined with her. He would never get to marry her, see her in white, get to soothe her when she had a fustrating day at work, never be able to see her belly grow as she carried around their child. He never even got to tell her that he loved her.

He slowly bent down, with tears now racing down his face, and kissed her cold lips.

"Hermione, I love you," he said softly, and started crying harder for he knew that she would never be able to hear him.

"RON!"

He heard someone scream his name, but made no effort to move, for he was next to Hermione.

RON, THE FIRE! WE HAVE TO MOVE!" The voice was right. There was a giant fire racing towards him and Hermione, who would never know that her body was about to be burned to ashes by Cursed Fire.

He would have stayed there to die if he wasn't worried about Hermione's body. Still wanting to keep her safe, he scooped her up in his arms, and made a run for the door, exiting the Room of Requirements.

Still carrying Hermione, and never-ending tears still falling from his face, he saw his best friend's face fall as he realized what had happened to their best friend. He saw his expression turn into pure anguish, looking back and forward toward Ron and Hermione, tears falling down his own face.

"Wha-what happened?" Harry asked, his voice shaking.

Ron didn't reply, for with a cry of pain, he sunk to the ground, against the wall, and started sobbing, all of his pain showing in his face. He was clutching Hermione's body close to him, squeezing her tightly, as if he could squeeze the life back into her. It was no use.

Suddenly, there was curse aimed right above Ron's head, which snapped up, tears still streaming down his face.

"Ron, let's go!" Harry yelled, while aiming curses.

They both ran toward an empty classroom, and closed the door behind them, everyone unsuspecting that they were in there.

Ron was seated in the teachers desk, his face covered in dirt and a bit of blood. His features were crumpled up with pain as he sobbed into Hermione's hair.

"Mate," Harry started to say, wiping his own tears. "We've got to go on. We need to destroy Voldemort, and make sure she doesn't die in vain. She wouldn't want us to just stand here, crying over her, when there are innocent people out there, dying, and risking their lives. Let's take her to the Great Hall. When this battle is over, we'll go back to get her."

And sure enough, after Harry feigned death, after he defeated Voldemort, and after they had celebrated, they went back into the world filled with pain and loss. Hermione, Fred, Tonks, Lupin, and many others had lost their lives in the battle. It was time to mourn.

**Please Review, as always :)**


	2. The Funeral

Her funeral had been help seperate from Fred's, at the Burrow, since there would have been so much despair if the two funerals were joined that even Dementors wouldn't affect them.

It was just about 2 weeks after the horrible battle that ended Hermione's life. Ron was looking around him at the mourners, and smiled a bit to himself at the fact that they didn't know what was going on inside him right now.

He felt completely numb; he wouldn't eat, or even sleep, afraid that he would have nightmares about how she died. Therefore, he had bags under his eyes, yet was wide awake, and able to think to himself.

He felt disguisted with himself. She had obviously pushed him so that she could take the curse instead of him. If he had been paying attention to the curses flying around him, he would have known that a Killing Curse was aimed right at him, and he would have blocked it, and Hermione wouldn't have needed to push him out of the way.

_Hermione._

Everytime he even thought her name, which was every few minutes, his eyes would fill up with tears.

He was sitting in the front row, close to the open casket, with Harry and Ginny by his side. He hadn't talked to anyone since the battle, and would always stay locked up in his room. Harry would always give him sad glances, as if he knew exactly what was going on inside his best friend, but said nothing.

Ron had thought of finding Hermione's parents and lifting the Memory Charm she cast on them but decided against it; he knew that she wouldn't have wanted them to suffer, knowing that they had a dead daughter, and would have rather they stay in Australia forever, never knowing...

Since the crowd around Hermione's casket was thining, Ron, with great dificulty, decided to stand up. Once he had stood up, he was confused for a millisecond on why he had gotten up, then remembered and made his way to the casket. As he slowly made his way through, the crowd suddenly had a strong urge to rush to their seats.

He finally found his way up there. There she was, Hermione, beautiful as ever, still wearing the satisfied smile she wore the night she died. Ron could do nothing but simply stare at her.

This couldn't actually be Hermione; it couldn't be. Hermione, always full of life, beautiful, smiling, angry, yet still beautiful when she yelled at Ron...

Ron thought of all of those years, wasted, simply for little teenage arguements. Ron had never hated himself more than in that moment. He was always hurting her, always beeing the cause of her pain and tears.

Maybe it was okay that she was dead. Now, he couldn't cause her any more pain, which he constatly seemed to find a way to do. He was being selfish, wanting her here again, with him, just so he can hurt her all over again.

Tears began to freely fall from his face as he cruelly reminded himself that he never really did get to tell her how much he loved her: after all, she had been the one to kiss him...

Thinking of the kiss was too painful, just the thought of her warm, soft lips had him choking with tears and gasping for breath.

He placed a hand on hers. "I'll always love you forever," he said quietly, just for the two of them to hear. And with that, they closed the casket. She would be buried within walking distance of the Burrow, Ron's suggestion, of course, for they were scared of his reaction if they said so otherwise. Hermione Granger was lowered into the ground and sealed, never to be seen again.


	3. Visiting Hermione

Harry had tried talking to Ron, tried to tell him that he was suffering as much as him, but even Harry knew these words wern't true.

The first time Ron had walked out of his room with a purpose, without the lost look in his eyes, not seeming like he had forgotten the good enough reason to step out of his sanctuary, had been two days after the funeral. He walked out of his room, with the same expression of misery and self-hatred that he had worn at the funeral, and quickly walked out into the backyard, trying to avoid the stares of his family and friends. Molly had started to follow him, but Harry shook his head at her.

After managing to wrestle some flowers from their small garden, he started to slowly walk toward the trees a few yards from his house.

He finally found her. Of course, he had memorized the exact place where she was buried. He looked all around, felt the comfortable silence, smelled the roses that he had picked. He kneeled down, and layed the flowers on her grave.

"Hey Hermione," he said softly. He was quiet for a moment, as if waiting for a response that would never come.

" I brought you some hand-picked flowers instead of magically made ones," he finally said, sitting down. Everything was still silent. "I reckoned you deserved better than that." Tears started to fall down his freckled cheeks, as he started to wonder if he was still talking about the flowers or himself.

"I'm back, love," he concluded, his voice cracking on the last word, the word that he had not permitted himself to think, let along speak out loud.

Rain started to drizzle down, then started pouring harder the more Ron cried, as if determined to wash away his tears. He put his head head in his hands, his shoulders shaking with his sobs.

Completely oblivious to the fact that he was now soaking wet, he layed down next to Hermine, his loud sobs hidden within the sound of the rain.

As the hours passed, he sobs had quieted down, but the pain was still a sharp jab in the stomach. He stayed there, not knowing whether he was conscious or unconscious, dead or alive, for he was drowned in his thoughts, pain, and misery.


	4. In Between Deaths

About four months went by, painfully slow. Ron now got up right before the the sun started to rise to go visit Hermione, ocassionally taking some flowers with him.

Harry knew that he was probably the only person at The Burrow that knew this, since after all of these years staying at the Burrow, he was still Ron's roomate, even though he avoided the despair-filled room as much as possible so Ron could stay there and mourn.

Everyday, even when Ron thought he was asleep, he heard him screaming and crying in his few nights that he did get sleep. Mostly, he just silently cried at night.

When Ron got up to get dressed and get ready to visit Hermione, Harry would always listen until he left, then watch Ron, with his shoulder hunched and his arm streched out as if to reach something, though the window, always walking slowly, hesitantly, as if he was afraid of what these visits would cost him.

Harry, who spent most of his time in Ginny's room, saw Ron walk out of his room, his expression completely different from the mask he had been wearing for a while. He was wearing a slight smile on his face, and when he saw Harry approach him, the smile slightly increased.

"I'm going to Diagon Ally. I should be back in a while," he announced, and with that, turned on the spot, and Disapparated.

Harry gave Ginny a questioning look, who shook her head. And soon enough, Ron retured a few hours later, something bulging in his rucksack, and locked himself in his room. Harry's fear for his friend increased.


	5. The Falling of the Warrior

**For those of you that read the other chapters (oh wait, duh, why would you be reading this if you hadn't read the others), I think that this is the best chapter I've written so far, and that's included with the one chapter in my other story. Enjoy!**

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><p>For a week after Ron's strange trip, he always wore the private smile on his face. Then, another tragic event happened, but deep in his heart, Harry had been expecting this to happen.<p>

Harry had gotten up as usual to watch Ron make his way to the grave, when he saw something completely unexpected.

The red-headed man walking out there still had the slight miserable features on his face, still had a strange smile (which was growing larger with every step he took), but looked completely different. His hair was neatly combed, and he was wearing his best robes.

Harry was running reasons for this strange behavior in his head, when he remembered the date: September 19th.

Hermione's birthday. The day she wouldn't turn 19.

Harry tried to squeeze the tears back into his eyes, and after he succeding in not crying over his brilliant best friend, he saw that Ron had already disappeared within the trees.

_Well_, Harry thought, _Since we're both going to be miserable, we might atleast be miserable together. _And with that, he too started to dress up to celebreate Hermione's birthday. _Happy Birthday Hermione, _he thought miserably.

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><p>Ron, after wishing Hermione a Happy Birthday, started to tell her about his day, which is something that he did everyday. The sun was shinning, and despite the little chill looming around them, Ron was feeling warm, could feel the blood rushing all over his body.<p>

He cleared his throat. "So erm, Hermione, being the braniac that you are, you can probably tell that there's something different about me, and you're right. Something is going to happen today that's going to make you and me both extremely happy." He took out some roses from his bag, laid them on her grave, and then took out a small vial.

"Hermione, I brought you a present. You must know how I feel about you, and how it takes me all of the energy that I don't have to get through every damned day of my life. You should know that you are the reason for my existene. But in case you don't know all of this, I brought proof." He lifted the vial. "Maybe I was meant to suffer, meant to go through unbearable pain every moment of my life until it ends, and maybe even afterwards, for leaving you, and for letting you die for me. You should know, however, that I am too much of a selfish git. I can't stand the pain, and I want to get to you, keep you close to me, knowing you're okay. I love my family, but I love you more. Now, I think that you should recognize this potion, seeming that you failed to make it in our 6th year."

Immediately after taking off the lid, strong wind started blowing in his direction, determined to spill the deadly liquid from its container. Ron merely laughed, and continued to laugh as rain came pouring down, with the need to dilute the potion. The sky roaring in anger.

" I LOVE YOU HERMIONE!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, to anyone and everyone who would listen. His lips were turned up as he swallowed the potion, and was still smiling as he fell to the ground, his world going black.

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><p>Harry had witnessed it happening. The vial, the sudden change in climate, the laughter, the death.<p>

No, he couldn't be dead. Ron was rubbish at potions, he wouldn't have been able to gotten it right. Surely, the one moment that he needed his Potions skills to be weak, it would have happened that way.

Harry had been walking out of the door and could barely see Ron through the trees. He had started walking slowly, as to give Ron a bit more privacy. He saw the vial, and questioned himself what it contained, but made no effort to get to Ron any faster.

He had witnessed the wind and rain, all of which to only be directed at Ron.

He saw Ron's roaring laughter, and those who didn't know his would have guessed that he was a half-crazed person.

He heard Ron's final words, telling Hermione that he loved her, and when he did, he knew that his heart's worst fear was happening right at the moment. He started to run.

"NOOOO! RON! DON'T SWALLOW IT! _RON!"_

It was no use. The rain and wind was too loud to be heard over, and when Ron sank to the floor, much like Hermione had, he knew that Ron's Potions skills must have drastically improved.

He stood there, towering over where his two best friends were dead, never to see them laugh, never to see them bicker, never to see them supporting him, never to see them staring at each other with such love that even they didn't know existed. With a cry filled with such pain that even the Dementors would have scattered, Harry sanked to his knees and began to openly weep, the storm raging around him nothing compared to the storm happening inside him.

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><p><strong>Please Review! Everyone has been so supportive, this is the second story I've started in my life, but I've kinda postponed on the first one since I'm feeling depressed about Harry Potter ending soon, so I guess you would call this my first. <strong>


	6. Heaven

**OK, so you guys probably know that I own no characters. Other than that, enjoy! This may be the last chapter.**

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><p>When Ron first woke up, the first thing he noticed was how light and happy he felt. This wasn't like when he was drinking the potion, when his happiness was the one that belonged to a mad man, his laughter coming from the craziness inside his head.<p>

Speaking of which, he wondered if it had worked, his suicide mission. The last thing he had remembered was the storm, then all of the blackness surrounded him.

He looked around, and noticed he was dry, and lying down in a meadow, with the sun shinning and puffy white clouds painting the sky. There were flowers all around him.

Just as he concluded that his mission had worked, he saw someone that made him doubt himself all over again.

"_George?"_ Sure enough, there was a twin, cracking jokes to the people surrounded him, all sitting on the grass a few feet away from him. The twin was the only person he noticed, since he was really surprised to see him.

The red headed Weasley looked up, amused. "Good golly, little brother, can't you even tell us apart when one of us is dead? He's always been a bit dim," he mentioned to the closest person to him, who laughed.

"_Harry?_" But as the man's eyes snapped up to look at Ron's face, he realized that it wasn't his best friend. The only thing different between him and the stranger in front of him was the eyes. They were hazel, not green.

All of the people sitting around him looked at Ron's expression as he realized where he was. With a roar of delight, he ran over to his brother and gave him a bear hug.

"Fred, I can't believe it's you! Man, you wouldn't imagine how life is back at home without you. George is absolutely depressed without you." Fred gave Ron a sad smile, remembering his favorite brother and best friend. Before they could say anything more, everyone else in the circle stood up.

"Hello, Ronald, as you probably know by now, I'm James." He reached out to shake Ron's hand. "I just have to thank you for looking over our son, when he most needed your help." He looked at the man, and there was not mistaking him then. He looked exactly like Harry, but eye color could really change the way a person looks.

Lily had now walked over to stand next to her husband, and give Ron a hug. He saw that Harry did indeed get is eye color from Lily. Ron awkwardly patted her shoulder, wondering if Harry felt this awkward around his own mother.

Ron then noticed the other three people standing around him. "Hey, Sirius, Lupin, Tonks," he said, nodding at each of them. "Good to see you again."

They all simply smiled at him, murmuring their greetings.

"But surely I'm dead, arn't I?" Ron asked.

"Yes, little Ronnie, you are. This is gonna kill mum, you know," responded Fred. But these words had hardly an affect on him; in this world, he felt no pain.

_Pain._

That was the whole reason he had come to this world, to escape the pain, and his head cranned around, trying to find what he didn't see.

"Hey Fred, have you by any chance seen Hermione?" he panicked, head still turning everywhere to find the girl he had died for.

"Yeah, she went over there by the tree, a bit that way." He pointed to his left. " I might add that she seems like the only person who can cry in this place, which is not surprising since she was always doing it while alive. She's hardly with us at all, always so lonely. At first she did stay with us a bit, but then she started drifting off."

Ron began running, pushing his muscles to their limit, which never seemed to come.

He suddenly stopped, for he had seen her, sitting under the tree, which looked exactly like the one from Hogwarts, and sure enough, she was crying into her hands, so she did not see when Ron came up to her.

He put a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up, a look of deep sadness on her face. Then, surprising Ron, she stood up and slapped him hard against the face.

"How would you Ronald Weasley? How could you do this to everyone? Do you know how despressed everyone is going to be? It's all your fault!" she sobbed.

"I tried to stop you," she continued, still sobbing. "The wind, the rain, it was all me. I tried to stop you and you didn't listen. The one time in my existence that I truely wanted you to listen, and you go and ignore me." She sank back down against the tree, and put her head against her knees, she shoulders shaking with sobs.

Ron was absolutely shocked. He had not expected such a reaction from Hermione, but of course, deep in his heart, he had known that she was the one that tried to stop him from drinking the potion.

"Hermione," he started, but couldn't continue for Hermione, with a groan, had stood up and tried to walk away. Ron grabbed her shoulders to prevent her from turning around, but she still struggled.

"Ron let-let me go!" she cried.

"No," he said firmly. "Why are you so upset? I would have thought that you would be happy to see me?"

"I have been watching you Ron! Look!" She pointed up to the sky, where sure enough, you could see any person on earth, and see what they were doing. At the moment, they were watching Harry sob over Ron's body, now soaking wet. Ron cringed at the image, but Hermione couldn't take her eyes away.

"Oh, yeah, I've got to stop crying. I don't want Harry to get sick because of my tears," she said, wipping her eyes and pressing her them to her head to prevent her from spilling any more. Sure enough, when Hermione's last tear had fallen, the rain surrounding Harry ceased. He barely seemed to notice.

Ron looked at Hermione, amazed.

"You've killed him, Ron. You've killed Harry by killing yourself. You left him without a best mate. Now what is he going to do?" she demanded.

"Hermione, it's not like we were getting along that well in the first place. I thought you have been watching us?"

"I have, I have. I was just hoping that with time, both of you would get over me and move on with your lives," she said.

"In case you didn't notice, I haven't gotten over you!" Ron yelled. "How could you even believe I would _ever _move on with my life without you?" He shook her shoulders. "Hermione, I love you, and that's what I came to tell you. I can't live without you, it's impossible. Not even giving yo u flowers helped, not in the slightest."

"I have all of them," she interrupted softly. Ron looked confused.

"All of what?"

"The flowers. Come look." She took his hand and led him to the other side of the tree, where there was a large pile of flowers. She picked one up from the top.

"I guess this is the last of them," she sighed.

"Hermione, forget about the stupid flowers." She looked hurt. "Why arn't you happy?"

She looked a bit mad. "Ron, how could you think I'm not happy? I'm the happiest person ever, now that you're here with me. I was honestly quite happy when you took the potion."

"Then why do you seem unhappy?" he asked patiently.

"Don't you see? I'd rather be here and miserable then everyone else down there be miserable. I'm just one person you're making happy, but there are a lot of people that you're hurting."

"Oh, Hermione," he said, sitting down and pulling her into his lap. He looked into her beautiful, brown eyes.

"You should know that I was also very selfish in coming here. I always knew that I didn't deserve you, yet I selfishly left everyone down there to come to you, even after you sacrificed yourself for me. I'm completely angry with you about that," he added.

"Ron, now it's my turn to admit how selfish I was. I didn't want you to die beause I knew that I would go through what you went through, but a million times worse. I couldn't bear even thinking about the pain," she admitted.

Ron laughed and hugged her, and she did the same.

"So I guess we can both admit we're selfish gits," Ron said between chuckes.

"I can admit the selfish part, but you've got the git part covered!" giggled Hermione.

They both automatically looked up at the same thought, both just realizing how little attention they had been paying to their loved ones on earth.

They had now moved Ron's body inside the house, and Mrs. Weasley and Harry were both sobbing over it. Hermione's eyes started to water up again. Even Ron felt tears coming.

"You know," she said, "we can talk to them too, but I wouldn't do it too often or they'll think that they're going mad. Plus, the closer you are with the person, the clearer they can hear you. See, look." She squeezed her eyes shut, and when she opened them again, you could see Harry looking around him, with a wild look on his face.

"What did you tell him?" Ron asked sadly.

"I told him that you're with me, and that we're both happy. I said "do you honestly believe that one can live without the other", and I told him to be happy since he'll see us one day. I tried talking to your mum, but she and I wern't as close as me and Harry sh she couldn't really hear me."

"Why didn't you ever send me messages?" Ron demanded.

"Because I knew that you'd come here sooner than I wanted you to," she replied.

"Didn't you see how much I craved to hear your voice? I would have stayed longer if I knew that you were here, and happy," Ron said.

"Don't lie to me Ronald!" she snapped. "I know you far too well to know that you would do something as stupid as this. Just try and tell you're mother you're okay, will you? I hate to see you her this way."

"Alright," Ron said wearily. "How do you do it?"

"Just think of the person you want to talk to, and what you want to say."

"Okay." So Ron closed his eyes, and thought about his mother, to tell her that him and Fred were happy, and to move on with her life.

"Ron," Hermione said softly. He opened his eyes and looked up. They could see Ron's mother and Harry sharing a look.

Suddenly, as if both of their minds were connected, as if they both knew that they couldn't handle it anymore, they were both kissing each other, gripping each other tightly, as if they thought that this was the last opportunity to hold each other and show each other how much they missed one another.

Ron fell onto the pile of flowers, bringing Hermione with him, but never breaking away from her. Hermione finally broke away after what felt like a couple of seconds to Ron.

"I needed that," she whispered. Ron laughed and put his arm around her as she put her head to his chest. They both looked up and could see Harry smiling, as if he knew exactly what they had been doing. They saw him mutter the word "finally".

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><p><strong>I was thinking of writing more. What do you guys think? Please review!<strong>


	7. Author's Note

I would just like to recognize everyone that reviewed, alerted, and favorited this story.

To: skaterofthebooks, pepe200, midnightstar19, Spongebobs, The Dark Knight's Revenge*, Jenny123, Wintergirl113*, rhmac12*, Lecrazyannex, whatweareafreaidof, and littlegirlgonemad* THANK YOU FOR YOUR FEEDBACK ON THIS STORY!

To: B-Duque, Digidestand Angel, horsegirl11, IkleRonniekinsLUVSMione, Katie Weasley08, kristin1788, Lecrazyannex, littlegirlgonemad, littletinyHPfan, peacelily, Ron212710, RonWeasley180993, Spongebobs, The Dark Knight's Revenge, and ziva10 THANK YOU FOR FAVORITING THIS STORY!

To: jessirose85 and Mittenzs THANNK YOU FOR ALERTING THIS STORY!

To the 156 Visitors and the 6,376 hits I've gotten so far for this story, THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Thank you for making this my:

20th most alerted story,

16th most favorited story,

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and 8th most read story.


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